Meta:IGN RPG Vault: Two Worlds Interview - Part 1

This Q&A was posted to the website rpgvault.ign.com by Richard Aihoshi - 'Jonric' on March 3, 2006.

Questions and Answers

March 03, 2006 - Many thousands of years ago, Aziraal, the god of war, fell in battle. His death deprived the Orcish hordes of their divine leader. Not long after, they were obliged to withdraw to the southern wastelands. Now, the location of his tomb is still unknown, kept well hidden by other deities who didn't dare entrust this precious secret to mere mortals. However, when a Dwarven mining expedition recently discovered an ancient holy place dedicated to an unnamed divine being, the world's most powerful factions all felt it might hold a clue to his undisclosed resting place. This possibility quickly led to many silent machinations, and the likelihood of the Orcs undertaking a crusade that would surely be bloody rises with every passing day. Unbeknownst to them all though, a far greater danger looms. The destruction of the entire world may be at hand.

This is the scenario in which Two Worlds will play out. A fantasy-themed RPG from developer Reality Pump, it seems to incorporate numerous features and elements worthy of our attention. For instance, it's described as offering players unprecedented freedom to shape the experience through their characters actions. The storyline is said to be strong and non-linear, with meaningful side quests. The advancement system will support with various careers plus the capacity to reverse choices through "career changers", and the magic system will be highly unusual if not unique in allowing us to assemble out own spells. The studio, although best known for its real-time strategy work including the recent Earth 2160, had previously released a highly intriguing cross-genre title, KnightShift. Knowing this further increased our interest. Fortunately, we found Project Leader Miroslaw Dymek willing to answer our questions.

Jonric: What kind of role-playing game will Two Worlds be? What will it be about, and what are its distinctive strengths and features? What is the significance of the titlee?

Miroslaw Dymek: Two Worlds is a fantasy role-playing game. There are three words to characterize it best -combat, story and freedom.

Combat, because it is the most important way to solve the problems, and also the most attractive.

Story as this gives the play a sort of backbone. We really wanted to avoid situations where the main goal dissipates somewhere between two, less important quests.

Freedom is another gameplay element that we have made an integral part of the game playing experience. Not just freedom to do things nobody cares for, but the ability to change the state of various conflicts in the gameworld itself.

All in all, Two Worlds is a very focused game. We started our work by concentrating on the general feeling that should accompany the player throughout the game, and carefully added all the necessary features to achieve it. I personally hope Two Worlds will be one of the most intensive and focused games ever released. That is our goal.

As for the name, well... it refers to the main conflict in the game, but is also a symbolic reference to many situations that happen in the course of the story. Anyways, without revealing too much, we start with two, but at the end of the game, there will be only one.

Jonric: What range and balance of gameplay are you trying to achieve, what kind of gamer will it appeal to most, and how much emphasis are you putting on replayability?

Miroslaw Dymek: The game is easy to use. Steering is simple, and the more complicated elements of the UI have been redesigned to resemble natural and commonly used actions in the real world. One of the most crucial points in our philosophy is to create an interface that you will enjoy. When referring to interface, there is a notion like "transparency" which is also a kind of measure how "good" the UI is. We think it should be transparent in some places and in more than simply visible in others. The players should have lots more fun when rummaging through inventory, browsing and assembling spells and items, buying and selling. If RPGs are about managing heroes, let's make this management a part of gameplay! With this approach being quite "organic", I would say even inexperienced players will be comfortable with the game.

Another thing is the setting and theme. Two Worlds is rather serious and dark, and the story is designed for mature players. I really hope it will appeal to younger gamers too, but definitely, this game has nothing in common with a fairy tale.

The "maturity" of the game reflects also in the range of influence the player has. There is quite a serious degree of freedom in what to do and how to do it. Many problems can be resolved with completely different effects observed in the world. Summing it up, the game is rather demanding in terms of gameplay complexity and theme, but steering should be accessible for everybody.

As for replayability, it is quite possible that you will not see all the content in the first run. There is also a multiplayer mode, with unlimited character development, loads of stuff to collect and just sheer fun slaying monsters with your friends. The game scales the challenges and rewards to your level so it should keep you glued to the screen for long time.

Jonric: Without getting into spoilers, how much can you tell us about the story element and the devices you're using to help tell and advance it?

Miroslaw Dymek: I can't reveal the backstory, simply because our idea for storytelling in Two Worlds implies revealing the important bits and pieces of the heroes' past as the main story goes. What I can reveal is that there is one character you will control during the game. He is a seasoned mercenary, so we are dealing with a rather skillful warrior. You may be thinking "What the... how am I supposed to play and develop a character that is already experienced?" This is not the case, believe me.

If you remember Knights of the Old Republic, there was a protagonist with a colorful and exciting past and you could still make him whomever you wished. Many games strip the protagonist of their memory in similar situations, but this is a cheap and abused trick and, frankly, very annoying. Two Worlds is closer to Final Fantasy VII in this aspect. You control somebody whose past is as exciting as the present time, but he must learn, and learn a lot to survive the perils awaiting him in his journey.

We tell the story mainly through dialogues, but some events will be shown in non-interactive cutscenes. Actually, there is a fair number of both dialogues and cutscenes in the game. All speeches are voice-overed by professional actors. One thing you will not see in Two Worlds, however, are unnecessarily multiple dialogue options that give you the illusion of freedom, but change nothing. If there is a choice, it is not declared in dialogue, but must be done in the gameplay. Dialogues only illustrate and summarize what players have done and sometimes provide more information. Two Worlds is a role-playing, not a role-speaking game.

Jonric: Regarding the gameworld you're creating and the variety of locations it contains, what are the key design objectives you're trying to achieve?

Miroslaw Dymek: We assumed that inventing a unique setting wouldn't add anything valuable to our game. Okay, we break some rules, more than you would expect when looking at the game for the first time, but we generally stick to the schemes accepted in popular fantasy. And for good reason. The game starts with rather confusing events and later on, the plot only thickens as the story unfolds. To achieve the feeling of surprise, we wanted something seemingly well known, but then we twist it in quite an unpredictable way.

From the other hand, our world is rather harsh and brutal. Many elements have been borrowed from dark fantasy settings, people rarely live according to lofty ideas, mistakes are painful, betrayal is an accepted way of reaching one's goals, and every good deed has its darker reason. It gives the world some depth, and the characters become more lifelike.

As for locations, well, there will be many memorable places, not because of unique settings but rather careful design. In Two Worlds, we're striving to imbue all the locations with some kind of emotion and atmosphere, mainly with the theme, graphics, ambient sound and music. So if we speak of emotional response, our game offers a deep experience of another, strange and believable world.

Jonric: Turning to the player character, how did you decide to handle this critical element? And is the system based on classes, skills or something else?

Miroslaw Dymek: You can teach your character any skill available in the game. There is no class restriction. The game encourages you to work for various factions and rewards you with knowledge and skills that are usually inaccessible in any other way. This is a kind of freedom no class system can offer. Besides, Two Worlds is a story-driven game. You cannot enter the mage guild, ask for membership, pay 100 credits and learn a spell. It will require a lot of effort to earn their trust and then, when you are famous enough, they will find you and ask you to join. It will be you who will decide to accept or reject the offer. Some guilds, like necromancers, work completely under cover. To find them, you will need to go through the initiation, learn their ways and then, maybe, they will bestow their secrets upon you.

Multiplayer mode, on the other hand, has a slightly different philosophy behind it. It is more action-oriented and definitely much faster than single-player mode, so we implemented classes for all those who do not want to customize their own characters but instead want to start the play immediately. There are more than 10 different classes, ranging from mage through necromancer to knight and barbarian. Anyway, for me, classes are boring; I always end up customizing my own character. The only reason for introducing them in Two Worlds is to simplify the process of starting the multiplayer session. In single-player, it kills the fun of building up an individual, fully customized avatar.

Jonric: What kind of advancement system have you chosen to implement, and what led to your decision in this area?

Miroslaw Dymek: Two Worlds is very combat-oriented. All the statistics and skills translate to the combat efficiency. The rules of character development system are simple and commonly accepted. The character levels up when a certain amount of experience points has been accumulated. Every new level brings some Statistic Points and Skill Points. Basic statistics like Strength or Magic affect the values of other parameters; e.g. the number of hit points or magic points. They also determine damage, protection, resistances and other parameters, but more indirectly. Basic statistics are raised with Statistic Points. Skill Points, on the other hand, serve to improve the performance of various actions. Some are performed automatically (dodging, parrying, etc.), and others require your attention (special attacks, spells), but all of them must be frequently upgraded to be effective against more and more demanding opponents.

This standard type of system works fine in many games and we found no reason to change it in any dramatic way. Skills, however, needed to be treated in a special manner. The skills in Two Worlds work best when used together, and they cannot be replaced with others. Certain skills are more important in the cases of certain opponents, but in overview, all of them determine your chance to win battles. It is a tough choice what to improve; Skill Points are very scarce, and it gets even more interesting when you know that some skills can be used only with particular types of weapons or items (traps). Luckily, Skill Points will be also available for achievements other than leveling up, although they will also demand more exploration and questing.

Jonric: Since you brought up combat, what kind of play experience can we expect in this element of Two Worlds? Will there be special features such as combos? And just how important will it be?

Miroslaw Dymek: The combat in Two Worlds may be dynamic and flashy, but the game is a long way from hack 'n' slash. Statistics and parameters determine success more than the players' dexterity or fast reactions. The player freely maneuvers the character, both in exploration and in combat, but the basic attacks are executed automatically. This means there is no need to launch each and every attack; just select the target and let the avatar do the rest. The fun lies in tactical usage of various skills, avoiding being surrounded, reacting properly to the attacks and special skills of opponents, etc.

There are no combos in terms of sequences of precisely timed moves meant to build up a devastating strike, regardless of the type and skills of the opponents. In Two Worlds, each of the numerous types of opponents will require the use of different tactics and different skills. There is no single winning combination. We designed the entire system to stimulate tactical thinking and to require upgrading skills with some purpose in mind. Most of the latest RPGs have focused strongly on the manual skills of the player. Two Worlds offers quite a different approach.

Combat is very important, but even more important is how to prepare adequately for it. In most cases, a charge into the crowd of opponents is suicide. To win against stronger creatures, you will have to use magic, lay traps, use natural obstacles... even some dirty tricks like causing a sudden avalanche and burying opponents alive will be available. We're building system in which imagination and activity will really be needed to succeed.

Here at RPG Vault, information is of paramount importance. The more we're able to learn about a game and the better we can help our readers to understand what the developers are trying to achieve in its design, the closer we are to accomplishing our core mission of disseminating knowledge. For this reason, we're very grateful to Project Leader Miroslaw Dymek for agreeing to tell us about Reality Pump's Two Worlds, and we look forward to the second segment in the near future.